swirlly bubbley stuff in the melt

[bigjake]

I smelted i bunch of WW's the other day and one of the batch's had this swirlly bubbley lead on top. i dont know else to describe it. anyway, when i clean out the melt with a wax pellet and a wood stick, it doesnt change, it stays. when i skim off the top the stuff is heavy like lead, not light like most dross. also, I use a bottom pour and when the lead goes down, it leaves this stuff that looks like foil or something sticking to the sides of the pot
when i smelted the ww's, i was real careful not to melt any zinc weights, so its not zinc. could it be calcium? i was reading something here about calcium.

[lwknight]

I got some of the same thing from berm mining. It came from a couple very soft boolits that would not melt easily. Luckily for me only about 7 pounds got contaminated.
I will keep it separate and try to cast anyway eventually.
Maybe its a tin/zinc alloy? Who knows.

[Bret4207]

No help on what it is, but I've seen the same "foil" in my pots in the past. It will reduce into the alloy when you flux enough. Try a more vigorous approach to your fluxing.

[Bloodman14]

What Bret said.

[nighthunter]

I think maybe you needed to get the temperature up a little. Also, if you use a wooden stick to stir that floating stuff against the sides of the pot it helps. I've found that it is often a lot of dirt but it will work out of the alloy with a little more effort. Sometimes a gob of flux isn't enough to get everything.

Nighthunter

[HangFireW8]

also, I use a bottom pour and when the lead goes down, it leaves this stuff that looks like foil or something sticking to the sides of the pot
when i smelted the ww's, i was real careful not to melt any zinc weights, so its not zinc. could it be calcium? i was reading something here about calcium.

Might be silver.

-HF